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FRANKLIN’S ARRIVAL IN PHILADELPHIA 

PAINTED BY N. C. WYETH FOR THE PICTORIAL LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
FRANKLIN ARRIVED IN PHILADELPHIA IN OCTOBER, 1723. 

COPYRIGHT 1923, DILL £? COLLINS CO. 











THE 


PICTORIAL LIFE 

O F 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Printer 


TYPEFOUNDER • INK MAKER 
BOOKBINDER• COPPERPLATE ENGRAVER AND PRINTER 
STATIONER • MERCHANT • BOOKSELLER • AUTHOR • EDITOR • PUBLISHER 

INVENTOR • SCIENTIST • PHILOSOPHER 
DIPLOMAT • PHILANTHROPIST 
AND STATESMAN 

PUBLISHED IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 200 th ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE ARRIVAL OF FRANKLIN IN PHILADELPHIA 



DILL & COLLINS CO. 

PHILADELPHIA 

1923 



% 



EZ zoz 


oci 


.6 

.Fg $ S's 


Copyright, 1923 

Dill & Collins Co., Philadelphia 
Printed in the United States 



17 1923 


FOREWORD 


We present this book to the printers and users of printing of America. As paper 
manufacturers, we are glad of the opportunity, on the occasion of the 200th 
Anniversary of the Arrival of Franklin in Philadelphia, to honor the name of 
Benjamin Franklin, Printer. No attempt has before been made to make such 
a collection as this of the authentic portraits of Franklin and of the notable 
pictures that have been painted of scenes in his life. No serious attempt has be¬ 
fore been made to compile a complete list of Franklin’s achievements. We hope 
Th e Pictorial Life of Benjamin Franklin will be an inspiration to all 
Americans in informing them of the true greatness of the man. 

The pictures for this book were collected by Walter Rowlands, Chief of the 
Fine Arts Department, Boston Public Library. The historical matter under the 
pictures was written by Brad Stephens. The book was designed byW. A. Dwiggins, 
Boston. The book was produced for us by Brad Stephens & Company, Boston. 

We also wish to make acknowledgment to all those who have so generously 
assisted us in the preparation of this book, to Walter B. Russell, Director, the 
Franklin Union, Boston; Alfred Rigling, Librarian, The Franklin Institute of 
the State of Pennsylvania; George Maurice Abbot, Librarian, the Library Com¬ 
pany of Philadelphia; Henry Lewis Bullen, Librarian,Typographic Library and 
Museum, Jersey City; Louis A. Holman, Boston; George Simpson Eddy, New 
York; William S. Mason, Evanston, Ill.; Prof.W. B. Scott, Princeton University; 
Prof. William Duane, Harvard University; Albert Cook Myers, the Franklin Inn 
Club, Philadelphia; Ernest Spofford, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; George 
E. Nitzsche, Recorder, University of Pennsylvania; The Century Company, New 
York; McClure s Magazine; Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York; Dr. I. Minis 
Hays, American Philosophical Society; A. J. Philpott, The Boston Globe; J. W. 
Phinney, Boston; J. M. Patterson, The Chicago Tribune; Mrs. Howard Pyle; Bobbs- 
Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind.; Miss Esther Singleton, The International Studio; 
Charles F. Read, Bostonian Society; Allan Forbes, State Street Trust Co. of 
Boston; Miss F. P. Adams, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; L. A. Hodge, 
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; The Public Ledger , Philadelphia; John T. Tussaud, London; 
J. Henry Smythe, Jr., New York; and the Boston Public Library. 

GRELLET COLLINS, President 

Dill & Collins Co., Paper Makers 
Philadelphia 



SEVENTEEN HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE 


NINETEEN HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE 


A List 

of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S Achievements 

Compiled for The Pictorial Life of Benjamin Franklin 
from the Franklin Biographies of James Parton, Epes Sargent, Paul Leicester Ford 
Prof. Albert Henry Smyth, and from other sources, by Brad Stephens 


I 

Franklin discovered that lightning is electricity. 
The world believed up to his time that light¬ 
ning was caused by poisonous gases exploding in 
the air. Franklin proved, first by observation 
and logic, and second by actual test with his 
kite, that lightning and electricity are identical. 

II 

Franklin invented the lightning-rod which Dr. 
Charles P. Steinmetz of the General Electric 
Company says is still the best and most reliable 
protection we have against lightning. 

III 

Franklin was the first to discover that a current of 
electricity has a magnetic effect, i.e. y that it can 
magnetize a piece of steel. He found that a wire 
carrying a current of electricity and wound around 
a piece of iron, makes the iron a magnet. This is 
the fundamental principle on which the telegraph, 
the telephone and the electric motor are based. 

IV 

Franklin gave the world the best theory of elec¬ 
tricity. After more than 150 years of further in¬ 
vestigation and controversy, modern science has 
finally adopted his early conclusions. These were 
that electricity consists of very minute particles, 
so small that they can pass between the atoms of 
ordinary matter. He believed that these minute 
particles of electricity, or atoms of electricity, repel 
each other and are attracted by the atoms of ordi¬ 
nary matter. His idea was that the phenomena of 
nature are due to the actions and reactions of 
atoms of electricity with atoms of ordinary matter. 
This is precisely the view held today by men of 
science. Within the last thirty or forty years 
scientific men have been able to isolate and study 
in detail these atoms of electricity, which are now 
called electrons. It is by means of these electrons 
that we send wireless telegraph and telephone mes¬ 
sages, and are able to broadcast concerts and 
speeches so satisfactorily. 

V 

He invented the Franklin stove, the first success¬ 
ful wood-burning stove used in this country. 


VI 

He invented double spectacles—near and far¬ 
sight glasses—making a pair for his own use. 

VII 

He invented and made the first mangle for ironing 
clothes, and General George Washington wit¬ 
nessed a demonstration of this machine. 

VIII 

He invented the invaluable contrivance by which 
a fire consumes its own smoke, and made the first 
smoke-consuming stove or furnace. 

IX 

He was instrumental in establishing 18 paper mills 
in the American Colonies. 

X 

He helped to establish the first fire insurance com¬ 
pany in America, The Philadelphia Contribution- 
ship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. 

XI 

He invented a copying press for taking copies of 
letters or other writing. 

XII 

He pointed out the advantage, later adopted uni¬ 
versally, of building ships with water-tight com¬ 
partments, taking the hint from the Chinese. 

XIII 

He was the first to discover that northeast storms 
come out of the southwest, in other words, that 
storms travel in an opposite direction to the winds. 

XIV 

His investigations concerning the weather re¬ 
sulted in the establishment of our United States 
Weather Bureau of which he is today acknowl¬ 
edged to be the father. 

XV 

He was the first to discover that the temperature 
of the Gulf Stream is higher than that of the sur- 


/ 


/ 


rounding water, and the first to have the Gulf 
Stream charted. 

XVI 

He delivered mankind from the nuisance, once 
universal, of smoky chimneys. His pamphlet, 
“Cause and Cure of Smoky Chimneys,” revealed 
the correct principles of chimney construction and 
rid the world of smoky chimneys and fire places. 

XVII 

He was the first to demonstrate that oil on the 
water will still the waves. 

XVIII 

Although not the discoverer, he was the first to 
demonstrate the production of cold by evapora¬ 
tion, a fact up to that time unknown to science. 

XIX 

Franklin devised a reformed alphabet which was 
based on simplified or phonetic spelling. 

XX 

Franklin was the first to propose daylight saving. 

XXI 

Franklin helped Thomas Jefferson to write the 
Declaration of Independence. 

XXII 

Franklin organized our postal system and was our 
first postmaster general. 

XXIII 

Franklin founded the University of Pennsylvania. 

XXIV 

Franklin conceived the idea and established in 
Philadelphia the first successful circulating library. 

XXV 

More than any other man, Franklin was instru¬ 
mental in securing the repeal of the Stamp Tax. 

XXVI 

He invented the Harmonica, or Armonica as he 
called it, which was a musical instrument consist¬ 
ing of a series of circular glasses revolving on a 
spindle and partly immersed in water. The music 
was produced by holding the fingers against the 
revolving glasses. 

XXVII 

Franklin made tests of various colored cloths on 
snow which showed that black and dark colors 
attract the heat of the sun and that white does not 
attract the heat. He made recommendations re¬ 
garding white clothes for the tropics and white 


cloth helmets for the troops in India which were 
adopted many years later by the British. 

XXVIII 

Franklin was the originator of the modern science 
of the art of ventilation. He was the first to dis¬ 
cover the poisonous quality which repeated respi¬ 
rations impart to the air in a room. He was the 
first to call attention to the folly of excluding fresh 
air from hospitals and sick rooms. When all the 
world slept with bedroom windows tightly closed, 
Franklin was the only effective preacher of the 
gospel of pure air and ventilation; and John 
Adams maintained that Franklin was a victim 
of his own foolish theories about air bathing. 

XXIX 

Franklin introduced rhubarb into America. He 
suggested the use of mineral fertilizers. He 
promoted the silk culture in Pennsylvania. He in¬ 
troduced the yellow willow into America for bas¬ 
ket-making. He taught the farmers of Pennsyl¬ 
vania to plaster their land. He introduced broom 
corn into Pennsylvania from Virginia. He intro¬ 
duced Rheinish grape-vines into Massachusetts. 

XXX 

Franklin organized the first anti-slavery society 
and made the first protest to Congress against 
negro slavery. His last public act was to write 
against slavery, 24 days before he died, one of his 
most telling satirical pieces for the Federal 
Gazette. 

XXXI 

Franklin edited the best newspaper and the most 
successful newspaper in all the colonies. He was 
the first to attempt to illustrate the news in an 
American newspaper, and also the first to publish 
questions and answers in a newspaper. He is said 
to have drawn the first newspaper cartoon, the 
picture of a snake cut into 13 sections to represent 
the colonies before the Revolution. 

XXXII 

With Lord Despencer, Franklin revised the Prayer 
Book of the Church of England. This was not 
adopted in England but was later adopted in part 
in America. Franklin’s purpose was, as Parton 
says: “To extinguish theology, which he thought 
divided and distracted mankind to no purpose, 
and to restore religion, which he believed tended 
to exalt, refine, unite, assure and calm the anxious 
sons of men.” 

XXXIII 

Parton says that Franklin was the founder of the _ 
Democratic party in American politics, that great 
party which Parton maintains was always right 
on every leading issue throughout all the early 
years of the Republic. 


XLII 


XXXIV 

In the war with France in 1758, Franklin suggested 
to the British Government the idea of an expedi¬ 
tion against Canada. The British finally sent 
Wolfe to Canada, Quebec was captured, and 
Canada became a British province. 

XXXV 

Franklin’s suggestion regarding our copper coins 
was never adopted. He proposed that they should 
bear on one side the proverbs of Solomon, and 
sayings that would encourage thrift, such for ex¬ 
ample as the following—“The fear of the Lord is 
the beginning of wisdom,” “Honesty is the best 
policy,” “Plough deep while sluggards sleep,” and 
“Diligence is the Mother of good luck.” 

XXXVI 

Franklin offered to pay personally for the tea 
dumped in Boston Harbor in order to secure the 
repeal of the Stamp Tax. This would have cost 
him about $75,000. 

XXXVII 

Lord Chatham said before Parliament that 
Franklin was “an honor not to the English nation 
only, but to human nature.” 

XXXVIII 

Franklin started the first thrift campaign, and 
that campaign is still going on. His maxims of 
Poor Richard did more to encourage thrift and 
industry in the colonies than any other one thing 
and they were circulated all over the world. Sar¬ 
gent says that they have been more often trans¬ 
lated and printed than any other work of an 
American author. 

/ 

XXXIX 

“Franklin,” says Parton, “was the first to turn to 
great account the engine of advertising, now an in¬ 
dispensable element in modern business.” 

XXXL 

Franklin’s work in establishing the independence 
of our country in the very beginning was so im¬ 
portant that he was the one who was first called 
the Father of His Country. That title years later 
passed to Washington. But Carlyle said that 
Franklin was “the father of all the Yankees.” 

XLI 

Of all the patriots, Franklin was the only one to 
sign all four of the great state papers that achieved 
our independence—the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the 
Treaty of Peace with England, and the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States. 


Franklin was our greatest diplomat and secured 
for us the aid of France in the Revolution and mil¬ 
lions in money without which our independence 
at that time could not have been established. 

XLI 11 

Franklin devised the first scheme for uniting the 
colonies, more than 20 years before the Revolu¬ 
tion, and his plan of confederation was finally 
adopted in all its essential features and binds our 
Union together today. If this plan had been carried 
out when Franklin proposed it, he believed it 
would have prevented the Revolutionary War, and 
would have secured our independence without a 
single battle. 

XLIV 

If Franklin did not originally suggest the Con¬ 
tinental Congress, he was one of the very first to 
approve it. Long before the majority in the 
Continental Congress could see the wisdom of his 
purpose or were even willing to consider the idea, 
he prepared the first plan of confederation of the 
colonies to be presented to that body, and sug¬ 
gested a name, “The United Colonies of North 
America.” 

XLV 

Parton says that the greatest event in Franklin’s 
life was his deliberate and final choice to dedicate 
himself to virtue and the public good. 

XLVI 

Whoever did more for a city than Franklin did for 
Philadelphia? He caused the city to be paved; he 
invented a better type of street lamp for lighting 
the city; and he organized the first street cleaning. 
More than this, he reorganized the antiquated 
city watch and caused the city to be efficiently 
policed; and he established the first fire engine 
company to protect the city from fire. More than 
this, he established there the first academy, the 
first library and the first hospital. More than this, 
he organized the first militia in the Province of 
Pennsylvania to protect the city of Philadelphia 
and other places from attacks by French and 
Spanish privateers and by Indians. 

XLVI I 

Franklin made a comfortable fortune in the print¬ 
ing business in 20 years. He retired from active 
business at 42 years of age so as to be able to de¬ 
vote the remainder of his life to scientific study 
and “to doing good.” 

XLVI 11 

It was Franklin’s compromise idea regarding the 
Senate and the House of Representatives that 


saved the Constitution. The delegates to the Con¬ 
stitutional Convention in Philadelphia were irrec¬ 
oncilably divided over the question of how the 
states should be represented in the Congress. The 
smaller states wanted to be represented as states 
on an equal voting basis with the states of large 
population. And the larger states were resolved 
to be represented only by population. Franklin 
himself was for one national legislative body only, 
and that body to represent the states according to 
their population. But when danger threatened 
the establishment of the Constitution and the 
United States of America, he gave up his own 
wishes, and proposed what Parton says was the 
“happiest political expedient ever devised,” a 
Senate to represent all the states equally, and a 
House of Representatives to represent the states 
according to their population. 

XLIX 

Franklin’s last great work for his country was in 
the Constitutional Convention which met in 
Philadelphia in May, 1787. Although now 81 
years of age and part of the time so weak in his 
legs that he had to be carried to and from the 
Convention in a sedan chair, he attended regu¬ 
larly, five hours a day for more than four months. 
At the suggestion of Washington, the delegates 
greeted him standing. Washington in the chair 
and Franklin on the floor worked together. They 
carried the Convention through in spite of ob¬ 
stacles and differences of opinion that, but for 
them, would have proved fatal to the establish¬ 
ment of the Constitution at this time. With a few 
words or a humorous story Franklin would de¬ 


molish a long opposing speech of a delegate, or ease 
the situation over a critical period. Several times 
it is said the delegates broke up to return home, 
but Franklin got them together again and per¬ 
suaded them to continue. At one time when it 
seemed that the Convention must dissolve with¬ 
out accomplishing anything, Franklin offered his 
famous resolution for prayers, saying that in the 
beginning of the contest with Britain the Con¬ 
tinental Congress had offered daily prayers “in 
this room” for Divine protection, and that these 
prayers were heard and graciously answered. 

“I have lived, sir, a long time,” he concluded; 
“and the longer I live the more convincing proofs 
I see of this truth: That God governs in the affairs 
of men.” 

The resolution was not adopted, but prayers are 
now offered in the Senate and the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives, in all our state legislatures, and in 
most legislative bodies throughout the world. 

* * * 

“When I was a boy I met with a book entitled 
Essays to do Goody which, I think, was written by 
your father. It had been so little regarded by a 
former possessor that several leaves of it were 
torn out, but the remainder gave me such a turn 
of thinking as to have an influence on my conduct 
through life; for I have always set a greater value 
on the character of a doer of good than on any 
other kind of reputation; and, if I have been, as 
you seem to think, a useful citizen, the public 
owes the advantage of it to that book.” From a 
letter written by Franklin in 1784 to Dr. Mather in 
Boston , the son of Cotton Mather . 


THE GREATNESS OF 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

BY 

HENRY LEWIS BULLEN 
LIBRARIAN, TYPOGRAPHIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM 

JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY 


M EASURED by his achievements, Ben¬ 
jamin Franklin is the greatest of Ameri¬ 
cans. Many have been great in one thing; he was 
great in many things. His discovery of a new 
science, the science of electricity, hidden from 
human intelligence since the creation of man, is of 
inestimable value to mankind. As a patriot, he, 
more than any other man, made Independence 
possible. As a statesman he inserted the provision 
which made our Constitution acceptable to all the 
States, irrespective of their population, and has 
vitalized it ever since. The benefits derived from 
his extraordinary powers of initiative and accom¬ 
plishment are for all time. He made many pre¬ 
cepts and practised them himself—successfully. 
He was wise and philanthropic and tolerant. 
Utterly without pretence or pose, he was the 
exemplar of what a citizen of a democratic nation 
should be. 

His Pre-eminence in the Colonial Period 

Benjamin Franklin had two careers. His first 
career ended in 1775, when he returned from Eng¬ 
land after the eventful year of 1774, during which 
he had been examined by the adverse Privy Coun¬ 
cil, had been dismissed by the British ministry 
from his office of deputy postmaster-general in the 
Colonies, and had presented to George III the 
final petition of the first Continental Congress, 
which foreshadowed the Revolution and the 
Declaration of Independence. Franklin was then 
in his seventieth year, somewhat broken in 
health, saddened (as all thoughtful men were) 
by the impending dismemberment of a great em¬ 
pire, and avowedly anxious to enter upon the life 
of a retired philosopher to which end he had ac¬ 
quired a sufficient fortune. He had incurred the 
bitter enmity of the British government and had 
subjected himself to the peril of imprisonment, 
and possibly death, because of his patriotic devo¬ 
tion to the American colonists. Franklin had 
been abroad since 1764 as agent for the colonies 
of Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey and Massa¬ 
chusetts. After ten years’ absence, though wel¬ 
comed by the patriotic leaders of public opinion, 
he received no popular recognition of his services 
as he landed in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775. 
This cool reception, together with the fact that 
his tremendous achievements in discovering a new 


science were better known and more highly es¬ 
teemed in Europe than in his own country, con¬ 
firmed Franklin in his desire to retire to private 
life, there to engage in philosophical studies. 

His Honors in the Colonial Period 

It is indisputable that in 1775 Franklin was the 
only great American, and the only American 
known to Europe, either as author, scientist, 
philosopher or statesman, in each of which avoca¬ 
tions his eminence was recognized in all learned, 
influential and official circles in Europe. In his 
own country he had received high honors at 
various times. He had been elected Grand Master 
of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons; elected a 
member of the City Council of Philadelphia; 
elected and re-elected for fourteen years to the 
Assembly of Pennsylvania; appointed a Commis¬ 
sioner to make a treaty with the Indians; ap¬ 
pointed (in 1753) Deputy Postmaster-General for 
the Colonies; made Master of Arts by the col¬ 
leges of Harvard and Yale; appointed to take 
command of the defence of the western frontier 
after General Braddock’s English army had been 
defeated and dispersed near Pittsburgh by the 
French and Indians; appointed (in 1757) Agent 
in London for the Assembly of Pennsylvania, to 
urge their rights in opposition to the Penn family 
and the British government; elected Speaker of 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1764 and in the 
same year again sent to London as Agent for four 
of the Colonies. In Europe in 1753 he had been 
awarded the Copley Gold Medal of the Royal 
Society of Arts and Sciences, its highest honor; 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London 
and of Gottingen, the Royal Academy of Sci¬ 
ences in Paris, and the Philosophical Societies of 
Edinburgh and Rotterdam; and had received the 
degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of 
St. Andrews and of Doctor of Common Law from 
the University of Oxford. He enjoyed intimate 
friendships with Edmund Burke, Lord Chatham, 
Fox and Sheridan, the shining lights of states¬ 
manship in Great Britain, all of whom he won 
over to the American cause. 

Thus, in 1775, Franklin stood alone as America’s 
one great man—a great man of the dynamical as 
distinguished from the accidental order of great¬ 
ness. At the age of twenty-five, three years after 





becoming a master printer, and while still strug¬ 
gling for a secure livelihood, he had founded the 
first circulating library in America, the Library 
Company of Philadelphia, still continuing, of 
which he was the first (honorary) librarian. Five 
years later he organized the first fire company in 
Philadelphia. In 1742 he invented the highly 
scientific Franklin Open Stove, which gradually 
displaced the huge colonial fireplaces and was the 
beginning of our stove manufacturing industry. 
In 1743 he founded the now famous American 
Philosophical Society and acted as its first secre¬ 
tary. In 1749 he initiated the movement which 
led to the founding of the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. In 1751, he, by pen and printing, took the 
initiative in promoting and founding the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Hospital. In 1754 he represented Pennsyl¬ 
vania in the first Congress of the Colonies, as¬ 
sembled in Albany, largely through his efforts, 
where he submitted a plan for a Union (pre¬ 
figuring our present Union), the object being 
common defense. These activities, undertaken 
and carried through without financial reward and 
at much expense to himself, were not of a char¬ 
acter to arouse popular enthusiasm, then or now. 
They were for the benefit of his countrymen and 
would have had a comparatively small space in 
history, if meanwhile, beginning in 1745, he had 
not become the greatest of contemporary scientists 
through his discovery of the properties of elec¬ 
tricity and the means to make it serviceable. 

His Discovery of a New Science 

“It seldom falls to the lot of any scientific man , 
no matter how great his ability , that he is able to 
follow a road so absolutely new that it has never been 
traversed before. This unquestionably was the case 
with Franklin , in his grand discovery of drawing 
lightning from the sky for the use of mankind , thus 
robbing Jove of his thunderbolts .” Thus spoke one 
of America’s greater electrical scientists, Dr. 
Edwin James Houston, before an audience of dis- 
tinguishedscientists,assembledin honor of Franklin 
in 1906. Houston also said on the same occa¬ 
sion: “Benjamin Franklin may properly be re¬ 
garded as the most distinguished man of science 
that this country has ever produced .” High and 
authoritative praise, indeed; but not quite ade¬ 
quate to the event! Franklin had discovered an 
entirely New Science. He had discovered that a 
great force in Nature, which had affrighted and 
mystified successive generations of the wise and 
the foolish through countless ages, could be made 
to be a supreme servant of mankind. He was the 
first to tame the lightning and to harness it to 
beneficial work. It was a sublime event, though 
its far-reaching possibilities could not then be 
imagined. Franklin’s pioneer discovery of a new 
science opened avenues to fame for Morse, Fara¬ 
day, Edison and hundreds of others. 


Flow did this man find time to accomplish so 
many important tasks? Franklin himself tells us 
in a little book written by him and incorporated 
in the last issue of his almanac, Poor Richard , 
in 1757. This book, if he had written nothing else, 
would have established his fame as America’s first 
eminent author. It is a compilation of the wit and 
wisdom written by Franklin during a course of 
twenty-five years for his Poor Richard,'s Almanac. 
The original title of the first separate issue is 
Father Abraham s Speech to a great Number of 
People , at a Vendue of Merchant Goods; introduced 
to the Publick by Poor Richard (,a famous Pennsyl¬ 
vanian Conjuror and Almanack-Maker ), in answer 
to the following Questions: Pray , Father Abraham , 
what think you of the Times? Wont these heavy 
Taxes quite ruin the Country? How shall we be ever 
able to pay them? What would you advise us to do ? 
This earliest American classic was first printed 
and published by Franklin’s nephew, Benjamin 
Mecom, in 1760, in Boston. In it, as we have said, 
Franklin tells us how to deal with Time: 

Methinks I hear some one of you say: “Must a man 
afford himself no leisure?’’ I will tell you, my friend, 
what Poor Richard says: 

“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain 
leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw 
not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing some¬ 
thing useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, 
but the lazy man never.’ 

“Lost time is never found again, and what we call 
‘time enough’ always proves too little. 

This book is popularly known as The Way to 
Wealth. It has been translated into Spanish, 
Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, 
Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, Modern 
Greek and Phonetics. There have been at least 
four hundred printings, and its wit, wisdom and 
true philosophy have permeated the daily thought 
and conversation of the inhabitants of many 
countries. It is one of the world’s permanent 
literary possessions. It explains Franklin. By 
following his own precepts he prospered in all his 
adventures and his memory has become immortal. 
Time was Franklin’s servant, not his master! 

His Rank and Recognition as a Scientist 

Franklin began his experiments in electricity in 
1745. In that year he met a lecturer newly arrived 
from England and bought from him an electrical 
apparatus which produced electric sparks by 
friction, and soon after he imported a small elec¬ 
trical tube which generated electricity by friction, 
and was sold as a toy in Europe, producing slight 
electrical shocks and sparks. In the next year the 
Leyden jar, precursor of storage batteries, was 
discovered accidentally. With it could be stored a 
measurable quantity of electrical energy produced 
by frictional apparatus. Interesting and impor¬ 
tant as these inventions proved to be, no one had 
sought to discover any utility in them, until they 


fell into the hands of Franklin in far-off Phila¬ 
delphia. He was the first to prove that these early 
weak and artificial emanations of electricity were 
identical with lightning, and had positive and 
negative excitements, by means of which great 
energy could be produced, which could be made 
useful to mankind. He invented an electrical 
machine of greater power. In pursuit of his self- 
assumed duties as Secretary of the Philosophical 
Society and of the Library, he had established a 
correspondence with Peter Collinson of London, 
a scientist and a member of the Royal Society of 
Arts and Sciences. Collinson sent him the elec¬ 
trical tube, a fact disclosed in a letter to Collin¬ 
son, dated March 28, 1747, in which Franklin says: 

For my own part, I never was before engaged in any 
study that so totally engrossed my attention and my 
time as this has done lately; for, what with making 
experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them 
to my friends and acquaintances, who, from the 
novelty of the thing, come continually in crowds to see 
them, I have, during some months past, had little 
leisure for anything else. 

In a letter dated July n, 1747, Franklin began the 
memorable series of communications to Collin¬ 
son which were eventually printed in a series of 
pamphlets, the first of which appeared in 1751, 
with the title, Experiments and Observations on 
Electricity , made at Philadelphia in America, by 
Mr. Benjamin Franklin , and communicated in 
several letters to P. Collinson 0 } London , F.R.S ., 
pp. 90, with 2 plates. 

The second pamphlet appeared in 1754: New 
Experiments and Observations on Electricity , etc. 
The third appeared in 1760. In Paris these letters 
were first printed in 1752. In Sweden they were 
first printed (in German) in 1758. The final edi¬ 
tion in English of the letters appeared in 1765. 
When the first letters were submitted to the Royal 
Society by Collinson in 1747 they had been re¬ 
ceived with derision; but these printed publica¬ 
tions immediately caused a profound sensation in 
all centres of science in Europe. The Royal 
Society hastened to bestow its chiefest honor on 
the far-off American, and elected him a Fellow. 
The king of France caused a letter of thanks to be 
sent to the great discoverer. Newton, the dis¬ 
coverer of the principle of gravitation, had died 
in 1727, and here was an American printer become 
the greatest of living scientists, and found eligible 
to share immortal fame with Columbus, Coperni¬ 
cus, Newton and Watt. Little wonder then, that 
when Franklin arrived in London in 1757, as 
Agent for the Colonies, he was received by the 
scientific world as a conquering hero. He had 
conquered a force more terrible than all the armies 
of history combined. 

There is a general impression, it seems, that 
Franklin made his discoveries through a succession 
of fortunate accidents. One has only to read the 
letters to Collinson to be disabused of such an 


opinion. He developed his theory of the identity 
of lightning with electricity and stated the basis 
of the theory and the experiments to confirm it in 
1747, but the spectacular kite-flying proof was 
not accomplished until June in 1752. The letters 
to Collinson, illustrated by diagrams and pic¬ 
tures drawn by his own hand, record each step in 
his studies and experiments minutely, compre¬ 
hensively and explicitly, disclosing his mistakes 
and errors of deduction as fully as his final facts. 
Never did any discoverer show his hand more 
frankly or more modestly. He was the first man 
to make electricity useful and the first to provide 
means to control its mighty power. He invited 
lightning to enter his home to ring signal bells 
and create other manifestations, after he had dis¬ 
covered the principle of his metal lightning rod, an 
invention that has saved innumerable structures 
from damage or destruction these many years. 
Never did scientist proceed more scientifically or 
more diligently, to accomplish his object. One of 
the more formal of his reports to Collinson has 
this modest title: Opinions and Conjectures con¬ 
cerning the Properties and Effects of Electrical 
Matter , arising from Experiments and Observations 
made at Philadelphia , 1749. It was not in him 
to be dogmatic. He presented the facts and his 
conclusions for what they might be worth; but 
authorities in electrical science agree that few of 
his final opinions and conjectures have been super¬ 
seded during the long period of development of 
that science since they were so modestly an¬ 
nounced. Thus he wrote to Collinson: 

These thoughts, my dear friend, are many of them 
crude and hasty. If I were merely ambitious of acquir¬ 
ing some reputation in philosophy I ought to keep 
them by me, till corrected and improved by time and 
experience. But since even short hints and imperfect 
experiments in any branch of science, being communi¬ 
cated, have often times a good effect, in exciting the 
attention of the ingenious to the subject, and so become 
the occasion of more exact disquisition and more com¬ 
plete discoveries, you are at liberty to communicate 
this paper to whom you please, it being of more im¬ 
portance that knowledge should increase than that 
your friend should be thought an accurate philosopher. 

Verily this is a noble letter, and entirely charac¬ 
teristic. Might we not call it chivalrous—as 
chivalrous in its way as the terms proposed by a 
chivalrous Grant to a defeated Lee. Science may 
have its chivalry no less renowned than war! 

His Eminence as a Philanthropist 

As an advocate of thrift Franklin’s character 
has been misunderstood by many. His was a 
generous nature in every sense of that term. 
Lavish of his time and energy in good works, he 
used his printing house to gratuitously print and 
circulate pamphlets inculcating new ideas or to 
promote benevolent projects. He was a generous 
and considerate father, husband, brother and 
friend. He was a master spender as well as a 


master economizer! In everything he undertook 
he was a great and wise Liberal—and whatever he 
undertook he accomplished. There was no penny- 
wisdom in his head or heart. Let it be also under¬ 
stood that Franklin deliberately gave all his scien¬ 
tific discoveries to the world without the slightest 
profit from patents (which he might have se¬ 
cured), publications, copyrights or other sources 
of income then available to inventors and authors. 
His stove and his lightning rod were quickly 
marketed by various persons. 

His Versatility as a Scientist 

His electrical discoveries constitute the chief 
basis of Franklin’s immutable fame as a scientist, 
but it should not be forgotten that he was the 
pioneer in other notable scientific discoveries. 
These are described in books relating to all of 
Franklin’s discoveries, published in London in 
1769 and in Paris in 1773. The two-volume, hand¬ 
somely printed edition in French was edited by 
Barbeu Dubourg. It is the most complete book 
relating to Franklin’s more important scientific 
discoveries that was issued in his lifetime. A 
translation of it was printed in Italian in Milan in 
the following year. Dubourg says in the preface: 

My affection for the author has made me undertake 
the translation, and his friendship for me has caused 
him to draw from his portfolio, to enrich this edition, 
many pieces which have not before appeared. 

Briefly, then, of other achievements: Franklin 
made the first chart of the Gulf Stream. As post¬ 
master-general he observed that mails forwarded 
to New York arrived much later than on ships 
bound for Newport. By diligent inquiry among 
seamen, and observations taken when voyaging 
to and from Europe, he discovered that ships 
entering the Gulf Stream in light airs or in calms 
were driven eastward by its strong current, some¬ 
times as much as three miles an hour, and that 
the Newport captains had learned how to avoid 
the current. Franklin prepared and printed a 
chart and forwarded copies of it to English ports 
for the use of captains, that they might sail along 
the edge of the current. This chart was also 
printed and distributed in France. Franklin de¬ 
limited the areas and current of the Gulf Stream 
by means of thermometers—an idea original with 
him. He invented the swimming anchor, used in 
situations where the sea is too deep for cable 
anchors. He discovered the cause of waterspouts 
at sea, and made the first scientific inquiries into 
the sources of wind storms and thunderstorms. 
As early as 1744 he was the first to establish the 
fact that our northeast storms start in the south¬ 
west. His observations, made by correspondence 
and by enlisting a volunteer band of observers, 
proved to be scientifically exact, and the data 
thus collected form to this day a basis for making 
forecasts of coming changes in weather by our 
Weather Bureau. Among minor inventions there 


are the street lamp that prevented the glass from 
being smoked, which had a world-wide use until 
electric lamps superseded oil and gas; bifocal eye 
glasses, invented for Franklin’s own use; a musical 
instrument called an harmonica, a pulse glass and 
improvements in the printing press. 

Franklin was a constant and keen observer of 
natural phenomena and an assiduous experimenter 
in a wide range of research. The record of these 
observations and experiments are to be found in 
his published works and correspondence, the 
latest and most complete edition of which is The 
Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin , edited by 
Albert Henry Smyth, and published in ten vol¬ 
umes in 1905. In that year there were in four 
great libraries no less than 16,678 letters and manu¬ 
scripts of Franklin, besides many others known to 
be in private collections. Most of these have 
been published. From early life he had the habit 
of preserving his correspondence and manu¬ 
scripts. Autographic letters of this illustrious man 
find a ready sale to collectors at prices ranging 
from one hundred to three hundred dollars each. 

When, as he supposed, Franklin had ended his 
public career, as he landed in Philadelphia on 
May 5, 1775, he brought with him from Europe 
the knowledge that the celebrity of his scientific 
discoveries, the wide circulation of his Way to 
Wealth and his masterly defense of his fellow 
countrymen in England, had established a degree 
of fame rivalled only among his contemporaries 
by that of Voltaire, Frederick the Great, J. J. 
Rousseau, Burke and the elder Pitt, none of whom 
was comparable with him in versatility of genius 
or in achievements. This was the Franklin whom 
the learned men of the world assembled to honor 
in Philadelphia one hundred and thirty-one years 
later, in 1906, celebrating with exercises, covering 
several days, the two-hundredth anniversary of 
his birth, under the auspices of the American 
Philosophical Society, of which he was the founder. 
One hundred and twenty-six universities and emi¬ 
nent learned societies of Italy, England, Scotland, 
France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Canada, Aus¬ 
tria, New Zealand, Japan, Belgium, Mexico and 
Australia were officially represented, including 
sixty-six American institutions of science and 
learning. 

* * * * 

He Begins a Second Great Career 

But Franklin was not allowed to rest. While on 
his voyage from England the war of the Revolu¬ 
tion had opened with the memorable skirmish at 
Concord. A second Continental Congress was 
summoned to convene on May 10, 1775. In the 
“time that tried men’s souls” the patriot leaders 
turned confidently to the aged Franklin. The day 
after his arrival he was elected Delegate to the 
Continental Congress. Thus he began his second 
career. On June 17 the battle of Bunker Hill in- 


tensified the crisis. Franklin was elected Chairman 
of the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania. 
Simultaneously he proposed to the Congress his 
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , 
and accepted the position of Postmaster-General 
for one year, with the task of preserving com¬ 
munications between the revolting colonies and 
foreign countries. He was a member of ten com¬ 
mittees. Writing to a friend on July 7 of that 
busy year, he said, “In the morning at six I am 
at the Committee of Safety, which holds till near 
nine, when I am at Congress, and that sits until 
near four in the afternoon.” When appointed to a 
committee he was the committee. He personally 
planned the effective defences of the Delaware. 
When lukewarm or timorous patriots dilated upon 
the expense of the war, Franklin replied, “I am 
not terrified by the expense of this war, should it 
continue ever so long.” 

George Washington of Virginia had been elected 
commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 
June, 1775 ) and hastened to its headquarters in 
Cambridge. In September of the same year 
Washington reported that his army was falling to 
pieces, with no proper shelter, no fuel, insufficient 
clothing, no money and little food. Congress 
asked Franklin to go to Cambridge as head of a 
committee of three, empowered to reorganize the 
army.^ It was a six weeks’ task, including a ride 
of thirteen days each way, to cooperate with 
Washington in devising a plan which was followed 
until the end of the war. Such was the home com¬ 
ing of the aged philosopher. 

On the Verge of Becoming a Martyr 

One of the first campaigns of the war was 
against the British garrison in Canada, in the 
hope of bringing that country into the new con¬ 
federation. The campaign failed, and Mont¬ 
gomery, the commander, was killed in the assault 
on the British garrison in Quebec, Colonel Arnold 
assuming command of a disheartened army. Con¬ 
gress, early in 1776, knew of no better remedy than 
to send Dr. Franklin to the rescue. With two 
other commissioners he undertook the journey to 
Montreal, empowered to receive that country into 
the Union, reorganize the system of government, 
suspend military officers, issue military commis¬ 
sions, raise additional troops and expend one 
hundred thousand dollars (which were not pro¬ 
vided, however). As the journey to Canada pro¬ 
gressed Franklin wrote, “At Saratoga I began 
to apprehend that I have undertaken a fatigue 
which, at my time of life, may prove too much for 
me; so I sit down to write to a few friends by way 
of farewell.” Nevertheless, the journey was com¬ 
pleted, only to discover that Canada would not 
or could not join, in face of the arrival of a 
British fleet and army and the bankruptcy of the 
American treasury. Franklin had provided the 
expenses of the expedition and had advanced 


cash to Colonel Arnold and to his fellow com¬ 
missioners, who returned with him to Philadel¬ 
phia in June, after an absence of ten weeks. 

1 hen came the Declaration of Independence , 
which Franklin assisted in preparing and heartily 
defended against the objectors, urging the depu¬ 
ties to sign, saying, “We must all hang together 
or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” 
(Do we sufficiently appreciate the fact that each 
member of the Congress was signing his death 
warrant in the event of defeat?) Later in the year 
in an address to the Assembly of Pennsylvania 
(in which a powerful minority opposed secession), 
Franklin declared in a sentence that stimulated 
patriot hearts that “they who can give up essen¬ 
tial liberty to gain a little temporary safety deserve 
neither liberty nor safety.” Thus the old man 
flung himself, with astonishing vigor and ardor, 
“into the deadly imminent breach” of the con¬ 
flict, as heroic as any man who drew a sword or 
fired a musket. It was at this time that men called 
him the “Father of his Country,” though still 
unaware that he was on the eve of becoming the 
“Saviour of his Country.” 

He Risks His Life for His Country 

Without an ally, without funds to buy war 
munitions or the means of making them, assist¬ 
ance from Europe was essential to the success of 
the American cause. Franklin was Chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations. He had 
many influential friends in Europe—in Holland 
and in France. Could these countries be persuaded 
to help? Franklin thought that they could. He 
solicited aid through his friends. Congress sent 
Silas Deane to France, with instructions to ask 
for twenty-five thousand men, one hundred field 
artillery and ammunition and arms on credit. 
Months passed without any report from Deane, 
but in September, 1776, Franklin received an 
encouraging letter from his influential friend 
Dubourg, who had tentatively approached the 
French government. Thus encouraged, Congress 
decided to send an embassy to France. Franklin 
was elected unanimously, a second ballot added 
Jefferson, a third added Silas Deane. Franklin 
was reluctant to go, but in face of the unanimous 
vote he consented, saying, “I am old and good 
for nothing; but as the storekeepers say of their 
remnants of cloth, I am a fag end, and you may 
have me for what you please.” Jefferson’s ill 
health prevented his accepting, and finally Frank¬ 
lin embarked alone in an armed sloop, in peril of 
his life in the event of capture, but arrived safely 
in Paris late in December, 1776. The voyage was 
stormy, the sloop was chased (ineffectually), but 
the scientist asserted himself, and took the tem¬ 
perature of the ocean daily while passing through 
the Gulf Stream, by way of verifying the chart 
made in earlier years! Franklin’s last act when 
leaving Philadelphia was to loan to the Conti- 



nental treasurer all his available funds (about 
£4000), a welcome contribution to an almost 
empty treasury. All his employments since his 
return from Europe had been without salary or 
expenses. His was a self-financing embassy. 

His Prestige in Europe 

Franklin’s mission to France was exceedingly 
difficult. Primarily it was to induce France, then 
at peace with Great Britain, to involve itself in 
war with the latter country, in order to aid a 
remote, weak and despondent body of rebels. 
Deane had not succeeded in opening negotiations. 
Deane had persuaded certain merchants to load 
two small vessels with military supplies, but in 
compliance with the protest of the British Am¬ 
bassador the French government prohibited the 
exportation. Finding the French minister of for¬ 
eign affairs (not inexcusably) obdurate, Franklin 
secured a credit of two million livres (francs) from 
French bankers through the influence of his friend 
and with no other security than his own amazing 
prestige and popularity. John Adams, ever envi¬ 
ous of Franklin’s fame, described this popularity, 
somewhat ironically, in a letter of a later date: 

Franklin’s reputation was more universal than that 
of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire, and his 
character more beloved and esteemed than any or all 
of them. His name was familiar to government and 
people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy and philoso¬ 
phers, as well as plebeians to such a degree that there 
was scarcely a peasant or citizen, a valet de chambre, 
coachman or footman, or lady’s chamber maid or scul¬ 
lion in a kitchen, who was not familiar with it, and who 
did not consider him a friend to human kind. When they 
spoke of him, they seemed to think he was to restore 
the golden age. 

A German official, in Paris at the time, wrote: 

Franklin’s appearance in the Paris salons, even before 
he began to negotiate, was an event of great importance 
to the whole of Europe. Paris set the fashions for the 
civilized world, and the admiration of Franklin, carried 
to a degree approaching folly, produced a remarkable 
influence on its fashionable circles. 

Europe was quickly inundated with souvenirs 
of Franklin medals; portraits of all kinds—on 
snuff" boxes and in lockets, and some so small as 
to be worn in rings, busts, etc. One of his secre¬ 
taries brought back to America a collection of one 
hundred and fifty varieties of these mementos. 

He Makes our Independence Sure 

How valuable to his own country this popularity 
proved to be is shown by the course of events. 
The loan of the bankers to be repaid at the con¬ 
clusion of the war was in itself an amazing achieve¬ 
ment in face of continuous military disaster in 
America, with Washington retreating across New 
Jersey before Lord Howe’s army. At this dark 
period, too, fired with admiration for Franklin, 
Lafayette with other equally ardent compatriots 
sailed for America in a ship of their own providing. 


Other loans were negotiated, while the French 
government, though not an avowed ally, placed 
no obstructions in the path of Franklin’s ener¬ 
getic activities. Much to the annoyance of the 
protesting British government, he was received 
with special honors in royal and ministerial circles. 

True to his knowledge of the power of printing 
he set up a printing outfit in his residence, and 
advised all Europe, and especially the people of 
England, of the merits of his country’s cause and 
the demerits of its enemies, meanwhile raising 
funds, shipping munitions of war, and equipping 
armed vessels to wage war on British commerce 
in European waters (with fair success,) notably 
so by vessels commanded at a later date by the 
aggressive John Paul Jones. It is conceded that 
no other man could have done so much for 
America in Europe. His activities, the money and 
supplies he provided and the war he carried on in 
European waters were as essential to the ulti¬ 
mate victory as any of the subsequent victories in 
America. No man did more to secure Independ¬ 
ence, and no other man was so uniformly success¬ 
ful in his undertakings. He suffered no defeats, 
and when the Americans turned from defeat to 
the victories of Trenton, Philadelphia and Sara¬ 
toga, the principal aim of Franklin’s policy be¬ 
came possible. The news of Burgoyne’s surrender 
to General Gates at Saratoga reached Franklin in 
Paris on December 4, 1777, one year after his 
arrival. On December 8 Franklin forwarded a 
memorial to the minister proposing an alliance. 
On December 13 Franklin renewed his request 
for an armed convoy for four ships laden with 
munitions and stores which had been prevented 
from sailing from Nantes by the proximity of a 
British fleet. (The miseries of Valley Forge were 
principally due to this detention). On December 
14 a royal frigate was ordered to prepare for sea 
to announce to the Americans the news of an 
alliance. This ship sailed on January 1. On De¬ 
cember 15 the request for an armed convoy was 
granted. On February 6 the treaty of alliance 
was signed, England immediately declared war 
against France and French fleets were hurried 
to the aid of America. All France celebrated the 
event—the glorious diplomatic victory of “Poor 
Richard.” By this alliance victory and inde¬ 
pendence were assured. Nevertheless in 1780 
Washington wrote to Franklin—“we must have 
one of two things, peace or money from France.” 
Franklin responded by procuring the money, get¬ 
ting a free gift or credit of six million francs from 
the French treasury. In all Franklin procured 
at various times twenty-six millions of francs: 
in 1777, two millions; in 1778, three millions; 
in 1779, one million; in 1780, four millions; in 
1781, ten millions; in 1782, six millions. 

The alliance consummated, Franklin, now sole 
plenipotentiary, kept up a vigorous fight, yet 
directed his efforts towards securing from Eng- 


land a peace with victory. Finally such a peace 
was concluded and confirmed by a treaty signed 
on November 3, 1783, in Paris, the negotiators 
being Franklin, Jay and Adams. Franklin now 
asked for his recall, but it was not until March 7, 
1785, that he was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson. 
“You replace Dr. Franklin, I hear,” said the 
French Minister of Foreign Affairs. “I succeed 
him; no one can replace him,” replied the great 
gentleman from Virginia. 

His Appreciation of Washington 

Franklin, like Washington, was hurt at times 
by the uncouth ingratitude of a minority in the 
Continental Congress. While, as Jefferson re¬ 
lates, “there appeared to be more respect and 
veneration attached to the character of Dr. 
Franklin than to that of any other person,” he 
was not always treated courteously by the Con¬ 
gress. When Washington was similarly contending 
with American ingrates in 1780, Franklin wrote 
him an appreciative letter, in which he said: 

Should peace arrive after another campaign or two 
and afford us a little leisure, I should be happy to see 
your Excellency in Europe, and to accompany you, if 
my age and strength would permit, in visiting some of 
its ancient and most famous kingdoms. You would, 
on this side of the sea, enjoy the great reputation you 
have acquired, pure and free from those little shades 
that the jealousy and envy of a man’s countrymen and 
contemporaries are ever endeavoring to cast over living 
merit. Here you would know and enjoy what pos¬ 
terity will say of Washington; for a thousand leagues 
have nearly the same effect with a thousand years. 
The feeble voice of those groveling passions cannot 
extend so far, either in distance or time. At present I 
enjoy that pleasure for you, as I frequently hear the 
old generals of this martial country, who study the 
maps of America and mark upon them all your opera¬ 
tions, speak with sincere approbation and great ap¬ 
plause of your conduct, and join in giving you the 
character of one of the greatest captains of the age. 

On July 12, 1785, Franklin began his homeward 
journey from Passy. Not only Jefferson and many 
high officials were there, but all the villagers. 
“When he left Passy, ”says Jefferson, “it seemed 
as if the village had lost its patriarch.” And his 
grandson wrote, “My grandpapa ascended his 
litter in the midst of a very great concourse of the 
people of Passy. A mournful silence reigned 
around him, interrupted only by sobs.” These are 
tributes given only to the wise and good. 

He Returns Victorious 

On September 13 he landed in Philadelphia. 
“We landed at Market street wharf, where we 
were received by a crowd of people with huzzas, 
and accompanied with acclamations to my door. 
Found my family well. God be praised and 
thanked for all His mercies!” Next day the 
Assembly of Pennsylvania voted him a con¬ 
gratulatory address: 


“We are confident, Sir, that we speak the sentiment 
of the whole country, when we say that your services 
in the public councils and negotiations have not only 
merited the thanks of the present generation, but will 
be recorded in the pages of history to your immortal 
honor.” 

In October 1785, Franklin was elected President 
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, receiving 
seventy-six out of seventy-seven votes. He was 
persuaded to accept upon representations that he 
alone could restore harmony among the political 
factions. “I had not firmness enough to resist the 
unanimous desire of my country folks, and I find 
myself again in their service for another year. 
They engrossed the prime of my life; they have 
eaten my flesh, and sefem resolved now to pick 
my bones!” Was ever a patriot worked so hard? 

He Makes Perpetual Union Possible 

In 1787 it was thought wise to hold a conven¬ 
tion to devise a better form of government and a 
constitution. Dr. Franklin was elected a Dele¬ 
gate from Pennsylvania. For four months he 
attended the convention regularly, five hours a 
day. In that illustrious assembly the members 
solicited his daily guidance. At one time the pro¬ 
ceedings came to a deadlock between the great 
and small States, the latter fearful of being out¬ 
voted in the proposed Congress. This dilemma 
gave Franklin his last great opportunity to serve 
his countrymen. He effected the compromise 
under which the Constitution has since endured, 
of giving each State equal representation in the 
Senate, while popular representation prevails in 
the House of Representatives. 

Meanwhile, year by year, he was re-elected 
President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
In 1790, on April 17, his life ended in his eighty- 
fifth year. Four days later he was borne to his 
tomb by a procession and concourse of citizens 
estimated to number twenty thousand, among 
them “the printers of the city, with their journey¬ 
men and apprentices.” 

His Personality 

In person Franklin was five feet nine inches in 
height, of athletic build, fond of exercise, with fair 
complexion, gray eyes, and features expressing 
serenity and mental power. His personality from 
boyhood until his death was entirely free. from 
pose or affectation. “Affectation is the wisdom 
of fools and the folly of many a comparatively 
wise man.” He was consistently democratic, 
maintaining the same demeanor with a crowned 
head as with an artisan, and equally “at home” 
with both. In conversation he was witty, and 
used many wise saws, proverbs and anecdotes. 
While refined in his manners, we gather that he 
was not finicky about the unrefinements of others 
around him. He avoided censure and anger. 


<7 

/ 


Shallow commentators on his writings have suc¬ 
ceeded in creating, among those who will not 
search out the truth for themselves, the illusion 
that Franklin was a penurious, hard-driving 
tradesman and office seeker, devoid of nobility 
of thought, and a utilitarian without spiritual 
aspirations. This is entirely erroneous. He sought 
the offices of Postmaster in Philadelphia and Clerk 
of the Assembly in his earlier business career, 
because they were helpful aids to his business of 
printing and publishing, but subsequent more 
important public employments were pressed upon 
him. In business he succeeded by giving his public 
superior service in printing and in his publications 
and by importing the best books available. He 
invested his profits in houses and lands. When he 
discovered ability among his apprentices and em¬ 
ployees he made them partners in printing houses 
which he bought for them. The terms of partner¬ 
ship were fair and businesslike, Franklin accept¬ 
ing all risks. All his partners lived on terms of 
intimate friendship with him to the end of their 
lives. Thus he gradually accumulated a compe¬ 
tency. He himself subsidized his scientific, philo¬ 
sophical, educational and patriotic undertakings. 
In the end, the United States owed him several 
thousand dollars, the payment of which he de¬ 
clined to press through a mass of red tape in 
which foolish persons had involved the trans¬ 
actions. At his death his estate was estimated 
to be one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a 
third of it in real estate. His will is a great and 
wise document. By its provisions the citizens of 
Boston and Philadelphia continue to be largely 
benefitted—benefits which, if wisely managed, 
will continue as long as those cities exist. 

His Unpretentiousness 

Franklin made no bids for fame. None of his 
writings were conceived as literary performances. 
They were done for practical purposes, to further 
Franklin’s utilitarian ideas and purposes. But 
he loved books; he read the best authors; he 
accumulated a library; he acquired style from 
contact with the work of literary stylists and used 
it unconsciously. He was not an eloquent speaker; 
used no grandiose periods and was reluctant to 
speak in public and did so only to guide a dis¬ 
cussion or extricate it from confusion or mis¬ 
direction. In an assembly his speeches, brief and 


conversational in manner, were in effect the 
“court of last resort” preceding decision and 
action. He did not need rhetoric to make himself 
understood. Rhetoric is the ammunition of those 
whose talk ends in talk. He preferred to lead the 
people by means of printing. As a workman in 
London he issued his first pamphlet (an educa¬ 
tional treatise), paying for the printing out of his 
journeyman’s wage. As a master printer he issued 
and distributed gratuitously many educational 
pamphlets. Though he had brought lightning 
captive from the skies Franklin always kept his 
feet on the ground, strenuous for accomplishment, 
careless of the limelight. 

Washington s Appreciation of Franklin 

We see that Washington the soldier leaned 
heavily on Franklin the diplomat. “We must have 
one of two things—peace or money from France,” 
was Washington’s despairing cry in 1780; and 
Franklin provided the money, as by a miracle. 
Not a few of the patriots of the Revolution pro¬ 
claimed their despair of victory, but Franklin 
never. Washington did not place himself above 
Franklin. The last letters which passed between 
these illustrious men emphasize their respect for 
each other. Franklin, himself living in excruciating 
pain, wrote to Washington to congratulate him 
on his recovery from a severe illness, saying: “I 
am now finishing my eighty-fourth year and prob¬ 
ably with it my career in this life; but in whatever 
state of existence I am placed in the hereafter, 
if I retain my memory of what has passed here, 
I shall with it retain the esteem, respect and 
affection with which I have long been, my dear 
friend, yours most sincerely.” And the majestic 
Washington replied with a eulogy no less earnest 
than deserved, and scarcely to be improved 
upon: 

“Would to God, my dear Sir, that your existence 
might close with so much ease to yourself, as its con¬ 
tinuance has been beneficial to our country and useful 
to mankind. ... If to be venerated for benevolence, 
if to be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for 
patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify 
the human mind, you must . . . know that you have 
not lived in vain. And I flatter myself that it will not 
be ranked among the least grateful occurrences of your 
life to be assured that you will be recollected with re¬ 
spect, veneration and affection by your sincere friend.’’ 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

FROM THE PORTRAIT BY JOSEPH SIFREDE DUPLESSIS 
IN THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 

















































































































































FRANKLIN UNION BUILDING, BOSTON 
AND THE MILLS PAINTINGS 


T HE Mills pictures in the Franklin Union 
Building, Boston, merit first place in The 
Pictorial Life of Benjamin Franklin. These ten 
notable paintings of scenes in Franklin’s life are 
reproduced in this book through courtesy of the 
Franklin Union, Walter B. Russell, Director. 
They represent the most truthful and inspiring 
series of historical paintings ever made of 
Franklin. Mr. Charles E. Mills devoted years of 
study to the life of Franklin and to the perfec¬ 
tion of the details in these pictures. The 
costumes, buildings, furniture and other settings 
are historically correct. 

The Union Building which is shown on this 
page is also important, for it was built as the 
result of a unique provision in Franklin’s will 
which should be known to every American. 
He left 1,000 pounds each to Boston and Phila¬ 
delphia, to be put at interest for 100 years. At 
the end of 100 years, he estimated that the sum 
in each city would amount to 131,000 pounds. 
At that time 100,000 pounds were to be taken 
out of each fund and put into “Public Works 
which may be judged of most general utility 
to the inhabitants.” The remaining 31,000 


pounds were to be continued at interest for an¬ 
other 100 years. 

Franklin provided that the money was to be 
loaned to “young married artificers.” In 
neither Boston nor Philadelphia did the sum 
at the end of the first 100 years amount to what 
Franklin had estimated. “Owing to changing 
industrial conditions,” the fund in Boston has 
been cared for since 1836 by ordinary invest¬ 
ment. It amounted to $391,168.68 on July 1, 
1891, at the end of the first 100 years. Of this 
amount, $322,490.20 were devoted to the build¬ 
ing and equipment of the Franklin Union. The 
balance of the FYanklin Fund in Boston, which 
was to be left on interest another 100 years, 
now amounts to more than $300,000. This is to 
continue at interest until 1991. 

The Franklin L T nion is a Technical Institute 
conducting day and evening classes for men and 
women already at work, or preparing to enter 
modern industrial and engineering positions. 
The School was first opened in 1908 and has 
already reached more than 18,000 men in its 
classes. In every way it is just such a school as 
Franklin himself might have planned. 































Copyright The Franklin Foundation 


FRANKLIN SELLING BALLADS ON THE STREETS OF BOSTON 


T HIS picture is the first in the series of ten 
mural paintings by Charles E. Mills in the 
Franklin Union Building, Boston. It shows 
Franklin at the age of 15, selling ballads in 
front of the Town House (Old State House) on 
Washington street. The bulletin board at the 
left on the side of the State House was where 
notices of the sailings of ships were then posted. 
The man and woman at the right are reading 
the titles of the books in the windows of John 
Checkley’s book store. The Heart and Crown 
Printing Office is at the left of the coach going 
down Cornhill. The belfry of the Cedar Meet¬ 
ing House is seen in the distance. 

“At that time,” says Parton, “there was a 
great trade in street ballads, both in the 
colonies and the mother country. The exploits 
of pirates, the execution of murderers, the 
gallantry of highwaymen, shipwrecks, horrible 
crimes, and all events of great note were chron¬ 
icled in doleful, doggerel ballads, which were 
hawked about in town and country.” 


As Franklin had a talent for making rhymes, 
his brother James, the printer, to whom he 
was apprenticed, persuaded him to write two 
ballads. These James printed and then sent 
Franklin about the town to sell them. One 
ballad was entitled “The Light-House Trag¬ 
edy.” The other described the capture of 
Blackbeard, a notorious pirate. It is said by 
Weems to have run as follows : 

Come all you jolly sailors , 

You all so stout and brave , 

Come hearken and I'll tell you 
What happened on the wave. 

Oh! 'tis of that bloody Blackbeard 
I'm going now for to tell; 

And as how by gallant Maynard 

He soon was sent to hell 

With a down , down , down , derry down. 

Franklin’s father told him his ballads were 
“wretched stuff",” and that he might better 
improve his prose style. Franklin saw the wis¬ 
dom in this advice and wrote no more ballads. 

























Copyright The Franklin Foundation 

FRANKLIN, THE EDITOR 


A T 17 years of age Franklin was editing The 
New England C our ant , his brother’s news¬ 
paper in Boston. At 23 he was editing his own 
newspaper in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania 
Gazette. The Gazette was more ably edited than 
any other paper of that day, and far better 
printed. It soon became the most successful 
and powerful newspaper in the colonies. 

James Parton says,“ Franklin was the first to 
turn to great account the modern engine of ad¬ 
vertising.” Advertisements in the newspapers 
up to his time had consisted almost exclusively 
of notices of runaway servants, and sales of 
houses and lands. Franklin stocked his shop at 
the “new printing office near the market” with 
books, stationery, soap, lampblack, ink, rags, 
feathers, coffee, and various salves made by his 
mother-in-law. He advertised all these wares 
“profusely, skillfully and constantly” and with 
highly profitable results. Other tradesmen fol¬ 
lowed his example. Advertising in the Gazette 
increased until it reached from four to five 
pages a week, an amount unprecedented in the 


colonies and probably in Europe. Franklin 
also originated the idea of distinguishing the 
advertisements with little pictures. 

Franklin, the editor, published the first ques¬ 
tions and answers in a newspaper. He wrote 
both the questions and answers. He is believed 
to have drawn the first newspaper cartoon, the 
picture of the snake, cut into sections to rep¬ 
resent the thirteen colonies, with the “loin or 
Die” legend. And he is said to have been the 
first to attempt to illustrate a newspaper. 

In addition to his newspaper, Franklin edited 
Poor Richard: An Almanack. This also was the 
most successful publication of its kind in the 
colonies. The edition was so large that he be¬ 
gan printing it in October. The Poor Richard 
Maxims which he wrote for the almanac were a 
powerful influence in promoting thrift and in¬ 
dustry in America, and they were circulated all 
over the world. Epes Sargent said in his biog¬ 
raphy of Franklin in 1853 “that they had been 
more often translated and printed than the work 
of any other American writer.” 
























FRANKLIN MAKING H 


ERE we see Franklin in a June thunder¬ 
storm in 1752 performing his famous and 
successful experiment with a kite. To avoid 
the ridicule ofhis neighbors, he stole away with 
his son, William, to a spot in the vicinity of 
what is now Seventeenth and Callowhill streets, 
Philadelphia, where there was a cow shed. 

The world believed up to Franklin’s time that 
lightning was caused by poisonous gases explod¬ 
ing in the air. Franklin began experimenting 
with electricity in 1746. He did not stumble 
upon his discovery. As Parton says, “It was a 
legitimate deduction from patiently accumu¬ 
lated facts.’’ On November 7, 1749, he wrote 
out a series of 12 particulars in which the “elec¬ 
trical fluid agrees with lightning.’’ He sug¬ 
gested the idea of fixing an iron rod on top of a 
high tower or steeple to draw the electricity 
from the clouds. There were then no towers or 
steeples in Philadelphia, so that he could not' 
make this experiment himself. The use of the 
kite in place of a steeple was not tried by him 
until nearly three years later. 



Copyright The Franklin Foundation 

S KITE EXPERIMENT 


The importance of Franklin’s electrical dis¬ 
coveries were quickly recognized in France. 
There the truth of his lightning theory was first 
demonstrated with a rod on a tower, just as he 
had directed. Franklin, however, had not yet 
received news of this when he flew his kite. 
The Royal Society of England, which had at 
first laughed at his theory, made amends by 
electing him a member, and by giving him the 
Copley Medal. 

As a result ofhis scientific discoveries, Frank¬ 
lin became one of the most famous men in the 
world, years before the Revolution started. 
The success of his mission to France was in 
large measure due to the universal esteem in 
which he was held in that country. Parton says 
it was impossible to convince the French people 
that “Franklin was not the whole of the Ameri¬ 
can revolution.’’ M. Turgot gave true expres¬ 
sion to the national feeling with his famous line, 
“Eripuit caelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis’’ 
—“He snatched the lightning from the sky and 
the sceptre from tyrants.” 






Copyright The Franklin Foundation 

FRANKLIN’S FINAL HOME-COMING 


A FTER concluding the treaty of peace with 
England that secured the independence of 
the United States, Franklin left Passy, France, 
on the 12th of July, 1785, and arrived in Phila¬ 
delphia on the 14th of September. He came 
home an old man, nearly 80 years of age, to per¬ 
form his final great task with Washington in 
securing the adoption of our Constitution, and 
to spend the remaining four years of his life 
with his family. He had been sent across the 
sea three times on important missions for his 
province and his country. He had resided 
abroad more than 24 years in all—16 years in 
England as agent, first for the Pennsylvania 
Province, and later as agent also for New Jer¬ 
sey, Massachusetts and Georgia; and eight and 
one-half years in France in the service of the 
Continental Congress. 

“Europe fixes an attentive eye on your recep¬ 
tion of Dr. Franklin,” Jefferson wrote to Con¬ 
gress. “He is infinitely esteemed. Do not neg¬ 
lect any mark of your approbation which you 
think proper. It will honor you here.” 


“With the flood in the morning,” writes 
Franklin in his diary, “came a light breeze, 
which brought us above Gloucester Point, in 
full view of dear Philadelphia! when we again 
cast anchor to wait for the health officer, who, 
having made his visit, and finding no sickness, 
gave us leave to land. My son-in-law came 
with a boat for us; we landed at Market-Street 
Wharf, where we were received by a crowd of 
people with huzzas, and accompanied with ac¬ 
clamations quite to my door.” 

The aged philosopher, diplomat and states¬ 
man stands erect, hat in hand, to receive the 
greetings of the Philadelphians who crowded 
Market-Street Wharf. His son-in-law, Richard 
Bache, sits in the stern of the boat holding a 
strongbox. “In none of the series,” says Louis 
A. Holman, “has Mr. Mills better shown the 
grandeur and dignity of Franklin. . . . The 
shouts of his neighbors and fellow-citizens 
meant far more to the old patriot than all the 
applause that had been given him so lavishly 
by the gay court of Louis XVI.” 
















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THE WILSON PORTRAIT 


By Benjamin Wilson , 1759. Taken by Major Andre to Eng¬ 
land, 1777. Given to Gen. Grey. Presented by Earl Grey to 
the United States , 1906. Now in the White House. 



SARAH FRANKLIN BACHE 


Faugh ter of Benjamin Franklin and wife of Richard Bache. 
Painted by John Hoppner. “Is extremely industrious with her 
Needle and delights in her Book." 



MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN 


‘‘She proved a good and faithful helpmate , assisted me much by 
attending the shop; we throve together , and have ever mutually 
endeavored to make each other happy." 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN 


By John Flaxman. Benjamin Franklin s son was the Royal 
Governor of New Jersey , and sided with the British against 
his father during the Revolution. 







FRANKLIN IN EARLY MIDDLE AGE 

An unpublished, portrait, painter unknown, but which has al¬ 
ways been in the possession of the family. Owned by Miss 
Mary and Miss Sarah Stockton of Princeton, N. J. 



FRANKLIN AT TWENTY 


This portrait by an unknown artist was painted in London. 
Its authenticity is doubted. The original is now in Memorial 
Hall , Harvard University. 



THE MARTIN PORTRAIT 


Painted by David Martin in 1767 when Franklin was 61 years 
of age. This is familiarly known as the “ Thumb Portrait." 



THE WRIGHT PORTRAIT 


Painted by Joseph IVright in Paris, 1782. Now in the posses¬ 
sion of the Royal Society, London. IVright, like Duplessis, 
painted several portraits of Franklin. 







NyMdmm/m u I Wk 11 — 

PORTRAIT IN PASTEL BY J. S. DUPLESSIS, 1783 


Presented by John Bigelow to the New York Public Library. Repro¬ 
duced through Courtesy of the Library. 


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FRANKLIN’S EPITAPH 

Written by Franklin in his own handwriting when he was 22. Many people think this 

ought to be placed in bronze beside his grave. 










THE CHAMBERLIN PORTRAIT 

By Mason Chamberlin , 1760-62. The Duplessis and Chamberlin 

portraits were Franklin s favorites. 






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LETTER TO STRAHAN 

William Strahan was a member of Parliament and Kings printer. 
He and Franklin were warm friends. This letter 
was never mailed. 






THE FILLEUL PORTRAIT 


Painted in 1778 by Madame Filleul in France. Original is 
lost and reproduction here is from an old print. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN WAX 

This life size wax figure in Madame Tussaud's Exhibition , 
London , was modelled from life in Paris , in 1783 , by Christo¬ 
pher Curtins , an uncle of Madame Tussaud. 



COCHIN PORTRAIT 

Drawn by Charles Nicholas Cochin in France in 1777. Known 
as the “Fur Cap Portrait." The original has been lost. The 
reproduction here is made from an old print. 



PORTRAIT BY BENJAMIN WEST 

This drawing was owned up to the time of his death by Ex 
Governor Samuel IV. Pennypacker of Pennsylvania. 










































THE GREUZE PORTRAIT 


THE PEALE PORTRAIT 


This pastel portrait was painted by Jean Baptiste Greuze in 
1777. The Boston Public Library owns a portrait of Franklin 
attributed to Greuze. 


This picture in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts was 
painted in 1787 by Charles Willson Peale, and is the last por¬ 
trait painted of Franklin. A similar portrait by Peale belongs 
to The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 



RENAUD’S PENCIL DRAWING 

From a pencil drawing by Jean Martin Renaud , in the 
W. //. Huntington collection in the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art , New York. 



THE CARMONTELLE PORTRAIT 


From an old print. This drawing by Louis Carrogis , called 
Carmontelle , was made about 1780 in France. 























THE PATIENCE WRIGHT PORTRAIT 

This profile was modelled, in wax about 1772 by Mrs. Pa¬ 
tience Wright, mother of Joseph Wright, who painted a 
portrait of Franklin. 



THE PRATT PORTRAIT 

By Matthew Pratt. With the exception of the portrait of 
Franklin at twenty, this is believed to be the earliest likeness 
made. It was painted about 1756. 



THE FRAGONARD PORTRAIT 

Jean Honore Fragonard, whose allegory of Franklin is repro¬ 
duced elsewhere, was a friend and admirer of the “ American 
Socrates.” The history of this portrait is not known. 



THE L’ HOSPITAL PORTRAIT 


This portrait was painted by J. F. De L'Hospital in Paris in 
1779for Franklin s friend, Count St. Morys. It now belongs 
to the University of Pennsylvania. 



THE CHICAGO STATUE 


This statue in Lincoln Park , by R. H. Park , was given to 
Chicago in 1896 by Joseph Me'dill. Photograph copyrighted , 
Underwood & Underwood. 



THE NEW YORK STATUE 


By Ernest Plassman. This statue, given by Captain Albert 
DeGroot y stands in Printing House Square. Unveiled in 16/2. 



IN THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON 


This marble statue , by Hiram Powers , stands in the Senate 
Extension of the National Capitol. Unveiled in 1863. A rep¬ 
lica is in New Orleans. Copyright , Harris & Ewing. 



THE WASHINGTON STATUE 


By Ernest Plassman. This statue , at Pennsylvania Avenue and 
16th Street , was the gift of Stilson Hutchins. Unveiled in 1889. 
Copyright , Harris & Ewing. 

















THE CAFFIERI BUST 


Modelled by Jean Jacques Caffieri in France about 1784. This 
and the bust by Houdon are the most important works oj 
sculptors ever made of Franklin. 



THE WATERBURY STATUE 


This statue by Paul Way land Bartlett is in Waterbury, Conn. 
Erected in 1921. Statue was cast in Baltimore and exhibited in 
Philadelphia , New York , Boston and other cities. 



THE HOUDON BUST 


This was modelled in Paris in 1778 , by the celebrated sculptor, 
Jean Antoine Houdon. This and the portrait by Duplessis are 
the best known likenesses of Franklin. 



THE WORLD’S FAIR STATUE 


This statue by Carl Rohl-Smith , was at the World's Fair in 
Chicago , 1893. A somewhat similar work , by J. J. Boyle was 
at the St. Louis Exhibition in 1904. Neither has been preserved. 






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THE PHILADELPHIA STATUE 


BY JOHN J. BOYLE. THIS STATUE STANDS ON CHESTNUT STREET IN FRONT OF THE POST 
OFFICE. IT WAS UNVEILED IN 1899, THE GIFT OF JUSTUS C. STRAWBRIDGE. 

A REPLICA IS IN PARIS, HAVING BEEN PRESENTED TO THAT 

CITY IN 1906 BY M. J. H. HARJES 


















UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA STATUE 



THIS SHOWS FRANKLIN, THE FOUNDER OF THE UNIVERSITY, AT 17 YEARS OF AGE 
ENTERING PHILADELPHIA. STATUE MODELLED BY DR. R. TAIT McKENZIE. 
PRESENTED TO THE UNIVERSITY BY THE CLASS OF 1904 








FRANKLIN STATUETTE 

Attributed to Jean Baptiste Nini by John Bigelow. This small 
statuette is of composition , painted , and the hair is said to be 
from Franklin s own head. 


FRANKLIN EXPERIMENTING 

The figure of Franklin, which is about nine inches high , and the 
table are composed of painted plaster and wood , and stand on a 
base of inlaid wood. Made in France about 1780. 


BRONZE STATUETTE 

Height about fifteen inches. This was made in France about 
1780. Artist unknown. One of many statuettes made of Franklin 
while he was in France. 


LOUIS XVI, AND BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

By LeMire. Statuette from the fV. H. Huntington Collection 
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Shows Frank¬ 
lin and Louis negotiating the Treaty of Alliance. 













FRANKLIN’S GRAVE 

In Old Christ Church Burial Ground, Fifth and Arch Streets, 
Philadelphia. The Boor Richard Club of Philadelphia wishes 
to put Franklin s own epitaph in bronze beside the grave. 



FRANKLIN’S PRESS 


The identical press on which Franklin worked as an apprentice 
to his brother. Owned by the Massachusetts Charitable Me¬ 
chanic Association, Boston. 



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GRAVE OF FRANKLIN’S PARENTS 


In the Old Granary Burying Ground, Boston. This memorial 
was erected by citizens of Boston in 1827 to replace the original 
slab put up by Franklin in 1754. 



FRANKLIN’S BIRTHPLACE 


This house stood on Milk street, Boston, near the Washington 
street corner, and directly opposite the Old South Church. Frank¬ 
lin was born on a Sunday and his father carried him the same 
day across the street to the church and had him baptized, 
“dedicating the tithe of his sons to the service of the church." 





























































































STATUE IN FRONT OF CITY HALL, BOSTON 

BY RICHARD S. GREENOUGH. UNVEILED IN 1856 WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST 

CELEBRATIONS EVER HELD IN BOSTON 


f 
























TREATY OF PEACE WITH ENGLAND 

PAINTED BY HOWARD PYLE. SHOWS FRANKLIN AND RICHARD OSWALD, THE BRITISH 

COMMISSIONER, DISCUSSING THE TERMS OF THE TREATY 
COPYRIGHT CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. USED WITH PERMISSION 








FRANKLIN ON THE STREETS OF PARIS 

PAINTED BY HOWARD PYLE. MEN DOFFED THEIR HATS TO THE “GOOD, 

WHENEVER HE APPEARED ON THE STREETS OF PARIS 

COPYRIGHT McCLURE'S MAGAZINE. USED WITH PERMISSION 


AGED 


DOCTOR” 







THE CONGRESS VOTING INDEPENDENCE 


Pamted by Robert Edge Pine and Edward Savage. Pine died in 1788 , leaving the picture unfinished , 
and it was completed by Savage. Franklin is seated , with his face seen in profile , near the center of the 
painting. Reproduced through courtesy , Hie Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 



THE COPLEY MEDAL 

Bestowed upon Franklin in 1753 by the Royal Society of England for his electrical discoveries. 
The Royal Society had unanimously elected him a member the year before. 











































FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE 


Painted by Andre E. Jolly. Franklin did not wear court dress when he appeared before Louis XVI. 
He wore no wig , carried no sword, and did not carry his hat under his arm (a chapeau bras.) His 
dress consisted of a suit of plain black velvet, white silk stockings, and silver buckles. 



SNUFF BOX PRESENTED TO FRANKLIN BY LOUIS XVI 

This relic is mentioned in the will of every generation of the Franklin family down to the mother of the present owner, 
Professor IV. B. Scott of Princeton University, a great, great , great grandson of Franklin, 
through whose courtesy it was photographed for this book. 










TREATY OF PEACE WITH ENGLAND 


An unfinished painting by Benjamin West. This does not show Richard Oswald and the other English 
Commissioners. Left to right , Jay, Adams, Franklin, Laurens, and Franklin s grandson. 



MEDAL TO COMMEMORATE THE REVOLUTION 

By Augustin Dupre. “In 1782says Paul Leicester Ford, “of his own volition and at his own charge , 
he had struck after his ideas a medal to commemorate the Revolution.” 










SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 


Painted by John Trumbull and in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. This painting is not at 
all historically accurate , as is the one previously shown of this scene , painted by Charles E. Mills and in 
the Franklin Union Buildings Boston. Copyright , Harris & Ewing. 



FRANKLIN MEDAL 

Designed by R. Tait McKenzie for The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Awarded 
annually by The Institute for distinguished work in physical science. 








THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA 

BENEFICIARY OF FRANKLIN’S WILL 


I N 1908, in compliance with the provisions of 
Franklin’s will, a sum of $133,076.46 was 
set aside by the Board of City Trusts of Phila¬ 
delphia for the purpose of assisting in the erec¬ 
tion of a building for the use of The Franklin 
Institute. The Franklin Institute of the State 
of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the 
Mechanic Arts was organized in 1824. The 
corner stone of its present building was laid on 
June 8, 1825. 

Weekly lectures on scientific and technical 
subjects are given throughout the winter sea¬ 
son. Monthly meetings are held at which re¬ 
cent discoveries in physical science and im¬ 
portant engineering achievements are discussed. 
The Journal of the Franklin Institute has been 
published monthly since 1826. The Library, 
devoted solely to works on Physical Science 
and Technology, now numbers 77,960 volumes 
and 20,431 pamphlets. The Committee on 


Science and the Arts examines and reports 
upon all new and useful machines, inventions, 
and discoveries submitted to them. Twenty- 
eight exhibitions of American manufactures 
have been held under the auspices of the 
Institute, and the first electrical exhibition in 
this country was held in the autumn of 1884. 

Recently the Institute received a bequest of 
approximately $1,500,000.00 from the late 
Henry W. Bartol, a retired manufacturer of 
Philadelphia, who died on December 19, 1918. 
This fund, known as the “Bartol Research 
Foundation,” will be used for the conduct and 
direction of researches relating to fundamental 
problems in physical science, particularly those 
in the field of electricity, and for the investi¬ 
gation of specific problems of a scientific nature 
which arise in the industries. A laboratory is 
now being equipped and will be in operation 
early in the coming year. 


















FRANKLIN, WILLIAM PENN AND ROBERT MORRIS 


CENTRAL GROUP IN “THE APOTHEOSIS OF PENNSYLVANIA,” A MURAL PAINTING BY 

EDWIN A. ABBEY IN THE STATE CAPITOL AT HARRISBURG 

COPYRIGHT M. G. ABBEY AND BY CURTIS AND CAMERON, BOSTON 





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MIRABEAU CROWNED BY FRANKLIN (Allegory) 


Rjy Jean Michel Moreau. Mirabeau, arriving in the Elysian Fields, A about to be crowned by 
Franklin. Rousseau {seated), Voltaire, Demosthenes, Cicero, and other famous men are included. 



THE TOMB OF VOLTAIRE (Allegory) 

front of the tomb are personified the four quarters of the globe—Europe by D' Alembert, Asia 
by Catharine II of Russia, Africa by Prince Oronoco, and A??ierica by Franklin. They are 
opposed by Ignorance. 









THE APOTHEOSIS OF FRANKLIN (Allegory) 

By Jean Honore Fragonard. Franklin with America seated 
beside him opposes the shield of Minerva to the lightning , and 
commands the God of War to fight against Avarice and Tyranny. 



DISCOVERING LIGHTNING IS ELECTRICITY 

By Benjamin West. Franklin with his right hand is testing 
the electric spark from a key which is suspended on the string of 
a kite flying in an electric storm. 



DR. FRANKLIN CROWNED BY LIBERTY 

Bv J. C. R. St. Non. The Genius of Liberty is crowning with 
laurel wreaths , a bust of Franklin placed upon the globe , on 
which may be seen the map of America. 



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FRANKLIN AND DIOGENES (Allegory) 


Diogenes is leaning over the portrait, holding his lantern in 
the left hand while with the right he calls attention to the por¬ 
trait of the honest man. 







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DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE 


From an old engraving. This shows the Committee that drafted 
the Declaration of Independence — Franklin , Jefferson , Adams , 
Livingston , and Sherman. 



SUCCESS TO PRINTING 


Franklin revisiting Watts' Printing-House , London , where he 
had formerly worked. Used by permission , copyright by l he 
Century Company. Painted by B. JFest (Ainedinst 



THE YOUNG FRANKLIN 


Shows Franklin working a press in his brother s shop in Boston. 
Painted by E. Wood Perry. The original of this picture is 
owned by Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts. 



“THE PUBLIC LEDGER” STATUE 

This statue by Joseph A. Bailly was cut from Brunswick stone 
and is ten feet , six inches high. It was placed on the “ Ledger" 
building in Philadelphia in 1867. 



V 



FRANKLIN’S HARMONICA (ARMONICA) 

This is the musical instrument invented by Franklin , and the identical machine “with which a thousand 
times he delighted his guests in Philadelphia , London and Paris." It was photographed through the 
courtesy 0 } its owner , Mrs. Malcolm MacLaren of Princeton , A 7 ". J. The treadle only is missing. 



FRANKLIN’S ELECTRICAL 
MACHINE 

He generated the electricity with this machine 
for some of his most important experiments. 
Picture contributed by The Franklin Institute. 



FRANKLIN’S CHAIR 

This has an extended arm on which to write. Photographed through 
courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania. 









MODELS OF THE FRANKLIN STOVE (PENNSYLVANIA FIREPLACE) 

These models are in the possession of the American Philosophical Society , Philadelphia , which Franklin 

founded. They are all said to have been made by Franklin. 



FRANKLIN’S LIBRARY CHAIR 


This is the chair Franklin invented to use in his library \ By turning up the seat it became a step- 
ladder. Original chair in the possession of the American Philosophical Society , Philadelphia. 






































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INSPECTION OF THE CAMP AT CAMBRIDGE 


This picture shows Franklin and Washington together at Cambridge , Mass. Franklin was appointed 
by the Continental Congress as a member of a committee to visit Washington at Cambridge and to inspect 
the camp there. Drawn by B. West Clinedinst. Used by permission , copyright Charles Scribner s Sons. 








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Value thereof in Goto 
or Silver, according to 
a Rdblution of CON¬ 
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MONEY DESIGNED BY FRANKLIN 

Two examples of Continental Paper Money designed by Franklin. He reproduced leaves of trees on the back 
with their veining to prevent counterfeiting. Franklin also designed , engraved and printed 
paper money for many of the colonies years before the Revolution. 




































THE “WATER AMERICAN” 


From a woodcut reproduction of a painting by Eyre Crowe , R. A. It shows Franklin in Watts' Printing 
Office with his fellow-workers drinking ale while he drank only water. Reproduced through the courtesy 
of George W. Jones , at the Sign of The Dolphin, in Gough Square , Fleet Street , London , E.C. 4. 



CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL 

By Louis St. Gaudens. Struck by order of Congress in 1906 in Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of 

Benjamin Franklin , 1 Printer , Philosopher, Scientist, Statesman, Diplomatist. 

















































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“THE NEW ENGLAND COURANT” “THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE” 

This i s the first number which bears Benjamin Franklin s Franklin greatly improved this paper when he took it over 

na?ne. It was published February 4-11 , 1723. in 1729. This is the first number he issued. 



























FRANKLIN’S OLD BOOK SHOP 

This was near Christ Church , Philadelphia. The reproduction here is made 
through the courtesy of The Century Company , and is copyrighted by them. 


Poor Richard, 1733 . 

A N 

Almanack 

For the Year of Chrift 

1 7 3 3 > 

Being the Firft after "LEAP YEAR. 


And makes puce the CrtaVcm Years 

By the Account of the E»Wera Greeks 7241 

By the Latin Church, when O ent. T 6932 

By the Computation of IV. kV. 5742 

By the Roman Chronology 5 682 

By the fjeuijb Babbies. 5494 


Wherein is contained 
The Lunations, Eclipfes, Judgment of 

the Weather, Spring Tides, Planets Motions Sc 
mutual Afpefts, Sun and Moon's Riling and Set¬ 
ting, Length of Days, Time of High Water, 
Fairs, Courts, and obfervable Days. 

Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, 

and a Meridian of Five Hours Weft from London, 
but may without fenfible Error, terveall the ad¬ 
jacent Places, even from Newfoundland to South- 
Carolina- _ 

WfRKHJRD SAUNDERS, Philoro . 

PHILADELPHIA. 

Printed and fold by B. FRANKLIN, at the New 
Printing Office near the Market 


<B0^1FACWS. 


AN ESSAY 

Upon the GOOD, that is to be 

Devifed and Defigned* 

BYTHO.SE 

Who Dcfire to Anfwet the*Great END 
of Life, and to IXQ G O Q D 
" While they Live* 

A BOOK. ^Offered, 

Firft,iti General, unto all CHRISTIANS, 
in a PERSONAL Capacity, or in 
a RELATIVE, ' 

Then more Particularly, 

Unto MAGISTR AXES,unto MINISTERS, 
PeySfCIANSr unto LAWYERS, 
unto SfcHOLE MASTERS, unto Wealchy 
GENTLEMEN, unto leveral Sorts of 
OFFICERS, unto CHURCHES, and 
unto all SOCIETIES of a Religious 
Character and Intention With Humble 
PROPOSALS, of Unexceptionable 
METHODS, to Do Good ifTthe Wortd. 

■ . ■ ■ ■ — — il -- -— , * 

Eph. VI 18 Knowing thak'rvbatfiHer Good thing any 
man doc;, the fame Qpk he'rece ive of the Lord. 

BOSTON in N'Englar.di Printed by B Green, for 

Samuel Girrifh it his Shcp in CornHdl t 7 1 c 


“ESSAYS TO DO GOOD” 

“If I have been , as you seem to think , a useful citizen," 
Franklin wrote to Dr. Mather , “the public owes the 
advantage of it to that book." 


































































T HIS famous picture by Christian Schussele 
was intended to show the scene in the 
‘‘Cockpit” before the Privy Council where 
Alexander Wedderburn, solicitor general for 
King George III, attacked the honor of Frank¬ 
lin. Wedderburn accused Franklin of stealing 
and publishing private correspondence. On 
the strength of this unjust charge, Franklin 
was two days later removed from his office as 
deputy postmaster-general in America. 

“I hope, my lords, you will mark and brand 
the man, for the honor ofthis country, of Europe, 
and of mankind,” declared Wedderburn with 
impassioned oratory. “Private correspondence 
has hitherto been held sacred in times of the 
greatest party rage, not only in politics but 
religion. He has forfeited all the respect of 
societies and of men. Into what companies will 
he hereafter go with an unembarrassed face, or 
the honest intrepidity of virtue? Men will 
watch him with jealous eye; they will hide their 
papers from him, and lock up their escritoirs. 
He will henceforth esteem it a libel to be called 
a man of letters; this man of three letters.” 

The facts today appear to be generally un¬ 
known regarding The Hutchinson Letters and 


the outrage to which Franklin submitted before 
the Privy Council on January 11 , 1774 . Even 
our recent postmaster-general, Hubert Work, 
thought Franklin was guilty as charged. In a 
syndicated article published in the Sunday news¬ 
papers January 21 , 1923 , Mr. Work apologizes 
for Franklin, saying in effect that he, in his zeal 
to promote the cause of the colonies, took 
advantage of his position as deputy postmaster- 
general to open and publish certain private 
letters that passed through his hands. 

James Parton tells the story of The Hutchin¬ 
son Letters in his Life of Benjamin Franklin , 
which is undoubtedly the best life of Franklin 
that has been written. “One day in the latter 
part of 1772 ,” says Parton, “Dr. Franklin was 
conversing with a member of Parliament upon 
the violent proceedings of the ministry against 
Boston, particularly the attempt to compel 
obedience to hateful measures by quartering 
troops in the town.” The member of Parliament 
told Franklin that the very measures he was 
protesting against were suggested and urged 
upon the British government by Americans — 
“by some of the most respectable among the 
Americans themselves.” 


FRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS IN COUNCIL AND THE 
STORYOF“THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS” 






Some time later this member of Parliament 
put into Franklin’s hands a packet of letters 
written by various Americans, and that did 
advise all the acts that England had taken to 
coerce the colonies. The address of each 
letter had been removed but it has since been 
learned that they were all addressed to William 
Whately, a member of Parliament, recently 
deceased, and who had been a go-between for 
those who wished to convey information to the 
leaders in the British government. 

First, therefore, we will note a correction of 
the statement that Franklin opened private 
letters, or any letters, and that he caused such 
letters to be published. Franklin never opened 
any of these letters. They had been opened no 
doubt by William Whately, to whom they were 
all addressed, and had been passed about by 
him among the leading men in England, as it 
was intended by the writers of these letters that 
they should be passed about among those who 
had influence in the government. Mr Whately 
in the meantime died, but the letters still con¬ 
tinued to be passed about and finally came into 
possession of Franklin, as already described. 

The letters of Hutchinson and all the others 
in the collection were in no sense private. They 
were every one written by public officials in 
America to public officials in England. Among 
these letters were six written by Governor 
Hutchinson, a native-born son of Massachu¬ 
setts. Andrew Oliver, another American, and 
lieutenant-governor, wrote four of them. There 
were numerous other letters, but every one was 
written by some officer of the crown in America. 

The man who gave Franklin these letters 
also gave him permission to transmit them to 
America, but with the understanding that they 
were not to be copied or published. As might be 
expected, the letters created a sensation in 
Massachusetts, and the colonies. They were 
carried about for many months by John Adams 
and John Hancock. The fact that they were 
finally published can in no way be held against 
Franklin. This was done without his knowledge 
or permission. 

The Whately-Temple Duel 

When printed copies of the letters reached 
England, there was immediately a great deal of 
public discussion over how the correspondence 
had come into the possession of the Americans. 
Franklin’s connection with the letters was not 
known or even suspected. I homas VV hatelv, 
a brother of William Whately to whom all the 
letters had been originally addressed, accused 
John Temple of having stolen them. Temple 
then challenged Whately to a duel. This was 
fought, first with pistols, and then with swords, 
and Mr. Whately was twice wounded. But 


neither of the two men seem to have been 
satisfied, and there was still further talk of 
another duel between them. In the meantime, 
Franklin who had been in the country returned 
to London. As soon as he learned what had 
transpired, he wrote, Christmas day, 1773, a 
letter to the Public Advertiser acknowledging 
sole responsibility for having “obtained and 
transmitted to Boston the letters in question.’’ 

This letter averted a second duel between 
Whately and Temple but it did not end the 
matter. Thomas Whately later instituted a 
suit against Franklin for a share of the profits 
that resulted from the publication of The 
Hutchinson Letters. This was simply a political 
maneuver to discredit Franklin by creating a 
public impression that he had derived profit from 
the letters, and had been influenced to publish 
them because of an opportunity to make some 
money. 

The Outrage Before the Privy Council 

In America, the treachery of Hutchinson and 
Oliver, as revealed in their letters, resulted in 
the drawing up of a petition to the King by the 
Massachusetts Assembly, asking that these two 
officials should be removed. This led to the 
hearing before the Privy Council in England 
where the petition was dismissed, and Alex¬ 
ander Wedderburn, the King’s solicitor-general, 
took advantage of the situation to assail the 
honor of Franklin. In fact the whole affair was 
purposely arranged to make a public show of 
Franklin. Nearly all the great lords of England 
were there, 35 members of the Privy Council, 
including Lord North, and the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. Dr. Franklin stood in a recess 
formed by the chimney throughout the hearing, 
“motionless and silent.” As described by an 
eye-witness, he maintained a placid, tranquil 
expression of countenance. 

For more than half an hour, and entirely 
out of order, for the hearing was called to con¬ 
sider the Massachusetts petition, and not to 
examine Franklin, Wedderburn continued to 
defame Franklin, and not once was he checked 
in his abuse. With the exception of some few 
of Franklin’s friends, those present expressed 
huge enjoyment in the entertainment the 
orator provided. There were frequent bursts 
of loud applause. 

Wedderburn gained much glory by his address 
against Franklin. “It was the talk of the clubs, 
and the applause of the Tory world.” Fox 
said, “All men tossed up their hats and clapped 
their hands in boundless delight at it.” And 
Wedderburn became a peer and a judge, and 
finally an earl and lord chancellor. 

But the King himself came at last to despise 
Wedderburn, and refused him an audience. 


Y\ hen Wedderburn (Lord Rosslyn) died sudden¬ 
ly, the King’s only remark was, 

“ Lhen he has not left a worse man behind 
him.” 

The biographies of Franklin also relate the 
story of the coat of spotted Manchester velvet 
which he wore at this hearing. Four years later 
when he signed the Treaty of Alliance with 
France, the indignities he had been subjected 
to before the Privy Council were still fresh in 
his mind, for he again put on the Manchester 
velvet coat — his ‘‘harlequin coat,” as Lord 
St. Helens called it. 

It is interesting to know that all of the so- 
called great men who took part in the examina¬ 
tion before the Privy Council lived to be ashamed 
of their conduct, and some of them later 



NO. 7 CRAVEN STREET, LONDON 

This shows the home of Mrs. Margaret Stephenson where 
Franklin resided during all the years he represented the 
colonies in England. CourtesyTowle Manufacturing Company. 


apologized to Franklin. Parton says the Ameri¬ 
can Revolution followed quickly upon this scene; 
and Horace Walpole’s epigram upon Wedder¬ 
burn and Franklin is still remembered: 

Sarcastic Sawney , swoTn with spite and prate , 
On silent Franklin poured his venal hate , 

The calm philosopher , without reply , 

Withdrew , and gave his country liberty. 

In spite of threats and other efforts that were 
made to induce Franklin to reveal the name of 
the man who gave him The Hutchinson Letters , 
he always kept the secret. It would have meant 
political death to the member of Parliament 
who is supposed to have done him this favor, 
if his name had been known. Franklin never 
told, and the world to this day does not know 
who this man was. 



HOUSE AT PASSY 

This is the house in which Franklin lived during his sojourn 
in France. From a drawing made in 1836 by Victor Hugo , 
and now owned by the New York Public Library. 
















































































BISQUE MEDALLION BY CHAMPION 

This beautiful piece by Richard Champion of Bristol , Eng¬ 
land, is owned by Mrs. JV. F. Magie, wife of Dean Magie of 
Princeton University. 



MEDALLION BY RENAUD 

B\ Jean Martin Renaud and made probably in 1785. From 
the terra cotta in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York. 



WEDGWOOD MEDALLION 


From the model by John Flaxman. This medallion was made 
by Josiah Wedgwood y the famous potter , who was a personal 
friend of Franklin s. 



MEDALLION BY NINI 

“The clay medallion of me you say you gave to Mr. Hopkins" 
Franklin wrote to his daughter , '‘was the first of the kind ever 
made in France.” 





















FRANKLIN MEDALS AND NEWSPAPER CARTOON 


Through a provision in Franklin s will , the medals are given every year to the schoolboys of Boston. 

The cartoon was made by Franklin 20years before the Revolution. 



The actual stick Franklin used when he set type is now in the possession of The Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania. It is shown here through the courtesy of the Society. 



FRANKLIN’S DESK 


This desk came from 
worked. 


Franklin s home in Philadelphia. It is the actual desk on which he wrote and 
Photographed through courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania. 






















































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